1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of refrigerators and, more particularly, to a refrigerator cabinet assembly including a cabinet shell that is structurally reinforced by an integrated frame unit.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In constructing a refrigerator cabinet, it is highly desirable to minimize the weight of the cabinet shell to reduce manufacturing, transportation and additional associated costs, yet it is imperative that the cabinet be structurally sound in order to counteract loads exerted thereon without deforming. Mainly due to cost efficiencies and flexibility in workmanship, it has been commonplace to utilize sheet metal in the forming of most refrigerator cabinets on the market today. Since the sheet metal is thin and rather high loads are often placed on the shell, particularly by the opening and closing of a weighted down refrigerator door, a fair amount of effort has been applied in this art to provide reinforcement for such a refrigerator cabinet. Of course, an additional important concern is the ease of assembly of the cabinet as a whole.
With this in mind, it has heretofore been proposed to form the sides and top of a refrigerator cabinet shell out of a single piece of bent sheet metal and then attach thereto rear and bottom walls. Thereafter, the shell is structurally reinforced in an attempt to avoid deformation during use. Such known reinforcing arrangements generally take the form of providing multiple reinforcement members, in the form of bars or plates, and securing these members to the cabinet individually. An example of such a known arrangement is represented by U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,470.
A major drawback of such a known arrangement is the difficulties associated with assembling the cabinet, including the manner of insertion and the aligning of the various reinforcement members. More specifically, various holes are provided in both the cabinet shell and the reinforcement members which must be maintained in alignment both during and after the attachment of each of the reinforcement members to the cabinet shell. As these holes are sometimes quite small, maintaining this alignment can be quite burdensome. This problem becomes even more apparent when more than two sets of holes must be aligned as is the case with some of the structural reinforcement members presented in the above-identified '470 patent. Furthermore, mounting these reinforcement members individually is time consuming. Various other reinforcing arrangements have also been proposed in this art in an attempt to enhance the structural stability of refrigerator cabinets and to simplify the assembly process. However, there still exists a need in the art of refrigerators for a cabinet having enhanced structural and efficient assembly characteristics, while also being cost effective, as well as aesthetically pleasing.